USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 3
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Senator John Sherman-Ohio's great sen- ator-always claimed that the Government never kept a single treaty made with the In- dian. Is it any wonder, then, that we find the Sacs, the Foxes, the Ottawas, the Winneba- goes, the Wyandottes, and Shawnees and the Kickapoos making a last desperate struggle to retain their happy hunting grounds ?
BLACK HAWK
The story of this last long effort by these tribes centers around the one chief who tow- ers above all others in this country, as Mt. Blanc towers among the foothills of the plains, viz: Black Hawk, a chief of the Sacs and Foxes. He was born in 1767, in the In- dian village of Saukenuk, on the north bank of the Rock river, about a mile above its mouth. At the age of nineteen, upon the death of his father, who was killed in battle,
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he "fell heir to the medicine bag of his fore- fathers," and for fifty years was the only leader of his people-the last savage patriot to defend his land against the irresistible force of civilization. Black Hawk was a born war- rior and leader of warriors. His great grand- father was a mighty chief before him-the celebrated old Thunder, who more than a hun- dred years before had led his fierce people- the Sacs-from the northern shores of the St. Lawrence to the rich valleys of Rock river and the Wisconsin.
Black Hawk taught his people a rude form of agriculture, and they made a garden of Rock Island. Until the unfair and one-sided treaty was made by the authorities at St. Louis in 1804 for a narrow strip of land along the great river, in order to work the mines of lead there, lie was a friend of the Americans. But he never would acknowledge the rights of this treaty by which the valuable lands of his people were filched from them. This had been accomplished by loading the four chiefs who had been sent to St. Louis to secure the honorable release of a Sac warrior impris- oned for killing a vicious backwoodsman in a quarrel, with gaudy presents, and filling them with whiskey. In addition, they were made flattering promises, and under these various influences they finally consented to give the American commander-the representative of the American-certain parts of their country on two rivers-the Illinois and the Mississippi. It was also promised, on the part of the Presi- dent of the United States to pay the Sacs $1,000 per year for his valuable grant. These chiefs had no right to make any treaty, though they thought by thus complying with the wishes of the white chief they would gain his good will, and save the life of the Sac warrior whom they had been sent to aid. Instead. however, they saw him. led out and shot to
death-murdered without a trial-in the very land over which the Ordinance of 1787 had expressly stipulated : "The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and their property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress, but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done them and for preserving peace and friendship with them.
How well we have kept these fair promises! What wonder that the noble blood of Black Hawk should fairly boil with vindictive rage at such treatment of his race. From this one abuse originated the Black Hawk war. But it was augmented by many other causes of even greater flagrance and dishonor. False reports about this great chief were spread far and wide, and the government sent an army against him. Our own great Lincoln formed, when a mere youth, a militia company, and marched to the supposed scene of "the great Indian uprising." Black Hawk, who never really meant to fight the Americans, but had long borne in silence his deep wrongs, was captured, through the treachery of the Win- nebagoes, and imprisoned. His tribes-men, helpless women and children-were ruthlessly shot down or drowned in the Mississippi, the very river upon whose banks they had so long hunted, lived and loved. After a long impris- onment in Jefferson barracks in Missouri, he was taken to Washington, where President Andrew Jackson held an interview with him. When asked by the President why he had at- tempted to make war against the Americans, he answered: "I am a man and you are an- other. I took up the hatchet to avenge inju- ries which could no longer be borne." The
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great President sent him back to live in peace with the few remaining people of his race, upon the plains of Iowa, where he died in 1838. Thus was closed forever, in the Old Northwest, the efforts of the Red Man to re- tain the lands and hunting grounds of his fathers. The Black Hawk war forms their last chapter. "As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war-cry is fast dying away to the untrodden West. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains and read their doom in the setting sun.
THE WILDERNESS SUBDUED
Gradually the wilderness gave way to the pioneer. His sturdy arm and untiring frame never knew rest until the forest was made to blossom with fruit and grain. He turned the mountain side into a garden of flowers. Along the stream he built his mill and in the protected valley he laid out the village-now the great city with its millions of people. He met the howling wolf with defiance, turned the woolly coat of the buffalo into a protect- ing robe, and dined upon choice rounds of bi- son and deer. As the virgin forest yielded be- fore his axe, cattle, sheep, hogs and horses flourished in his meadows. The meadows in turn gave place to the corn, and later to the wheat-and in place of the "johnny cake" came the snow-white loaf. The loving mother, sons and daughters were clad for many years only in garments made by their own hands- the "linsey-woolsey" of Hoosier days. Every- body worked from daylight until late into the night. The pioneer was his own manufac- turer. He could shoe a horse or "iron" a wagon. He could build a chair or a house. He could make his children's shoes or a spin-
ning-wheel, and by the light of the fire from the great open fireplace-that ancient em- blem of the tribal family and of modern civili- zation-he tied his brooms and taught his children the "three R's."
As markets came nearer, his rude cabin, "where humble happiness endeared each
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scene," gave place to a more pretentious dwelling, and in it many of the real luxuries of life were found.
Well could he say with Oliver Goldsmith : Blest be the spot where cheerful guests retire, To pause from toil and trim their evening fire ; Blest that abode where want and pain repair, And every stranger finds a ready chair ;
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Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crowned,
Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail, Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale; Or press the bashful stranger to his food, And learned the luxury of doing good.
The virgin soil now yields its golden har- vest and "health and plenty cheer the labor- ing swain."
But out of all this change and progress comes the rugged pioneer himself, unchanged. His brow is deeply furrowed by the hardships,
of years of sunshine and shadow, and his manners are still those of the dawn.
THE PIONEER'S MONUMENT
Dr. James Baldwin pays the pioneer the following noble tribute: "No hero of his- tory, no warrior patriot, ever served his coun- try better or earned laurels more nobly. The world may forget what he suffered and what he accomplished, but his monument shall re- main as long as our country endures. What is his monument? It is the Old Northwest itself, now the center of the republic, and the crowning factor of our country's greatness."
CHAPTER II
THE FAMOUS HOCKING VALLEY
Great Valleys of the World-Valley of the Hocking-Its Great Fertility-Dunmore's War- The Famed Logan Elm-First Attempt at Settlement in Ohio-General Harmar Sent Against the Miamis-St. Clair's Defeat-Fort Defiance-Battle of the Fallen Timber, General Wayne's Great Victory-Siege of Fort Meigs-Col. George Croghan and the Defense of Fort Stephenson-End of the War of 1812-Early Struggle for Possession -Wild Game an Alluring Prise-The Economic Work of the Beaver-The Ohio Com- pany-France Attempts to Take Possession of the Ohio Valley-The French and Indian War-The Fertility, Wealth and Substantial Citizenship of the Great Hocking Valley.
In all ages and countries man has sought the river valley. In the valley man first ad- vanced from barbarism to civilization. The first nations to gain power and to become en- lightened were those whose homes were on fertile soil and beside cool water.
The great and fertile basin between the Alps and the Apennines-that garden of the ancient world-through which flows the Po, was the abiding place of millions of inhabit- ants and the source of Italy's wealth. Of this valley Dr. Thomas Arnold says: "Who can wonder that this large and richly watered plain should be filled with flourishing cities or that it should have been successfully con- tended for so often by successful invaders."
The Greek historian Herodotus proclaims : "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." The annual overflow of that giant stream has kept the valley of Egypt a garden of richest alluvium for untold centuries. Here have uncounted millions of the human race "lived, loved and died."
The great river valleys of Russia have
long supported her teeming population, and today her sluggish rivers carry Russia's wealth to the sea.
In America the Hudson flows through a valley so rich and so beautiful that it has long been the theme of the historian, and the in- spiration of the bard.
But to the inhabitants of the Old North- west, and especially of Ohio, no valley has a greater charm than that of the Hocking. The name is Indian, and it falls softly on the ear when it is pronounced. The beauty of the name introduces you to the beauty of the val- ley
THE HOCKING RIVER
The Hocking takes its rise in a large spring in Fairfield county, about ten miles northwest of Lancaster, the county seat. The spring is on the farm of Reuben Faler, in Section 21, Bloom township. It flows thence through the farm of A. Bowman, thence through the farm of the heirs of Joseph Leyndecker, thence through the farm of W. R. Cofman, and on
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toward Lancaster. It empties into the Ohio at Hockingport, in Athens county, about 87 miles from its source The river, it is thus seen, is less than 100 miles in length. The spring of pure water which is its source is 1,200 feet above the mouth, thus giving the river an average fall of nearly 14 feet to the mile. This remarkable fall accounts for the terrific force of its current during floods and high waters. The river valley contains por- tions of nine counties-more than 4,000 square miles in area. Its valley is the sixth in size of the seven river sections of Ohio. The coun- ties drained in whole or in part are Fairfield, Hocking, Perry, Athens, Morgan, Vinton, Meigs (Gallia and Lawrence), and these nine counties constitute the "Hocking Valley" river section, lying between the western wa- tershed of the Muskingum Valley, and the eastern watershed of the Scioto valley.
At Sugar Grove the Hocking river receives Rush Creek from the east. This creek is much larger than the Hocking, and, it is thought by many, should have been called Hocking. With one exception-Margaret's creek, one mile west of Athens-the Hocking has no western tributaries of any considerable size. But it has a goodly number from the east-Monday creek, which empties into the Hocking near Nelsonville; Sunday creek, at Chauncey, six miles above Athens; Margaret creek front the west; then numerous small streams meet the Hocking and swell its waters till they form a noble stream, falling into the Ohio at Hockingport.
In many parts of its course the valley is quite wide and the soil extremely fertile. The stream itself is not large, yet in time of heavy rains or melting snows, from the great fall it has-1,200 feet in its entire course-it be- comes a raging torrent-an avalanche, such as
the city of Athens, and other places, recently experienced.
This fertile valley was the original home of the Wyandotts, the Hurons, the Shawnees and the Delawares-brave and warlike tribes of Indians, who had held it for untold cen- turies. These Indians (The Wyandotts ) had at the coming of the white man, two well known towns within the limits of Fairfield county :- one called Tarhe town, located southeast of the present city of Lancaster, on ground now occupied by the railroads-Old Chief Tarhe, a noble old master of his race, was ruler of his town and from him it took its name. The other town of the Wyandotts was known as Toby town-ruled by a less important and less worthy chief called Toby. This town was near, or possibly on, the pres- ent site of Royalton, in the northern part of Amanda township.
The Hocking river is sometimes called the "Hock-hock-ing," which in the language of the Delaware Indians, signifies a bottle. The Shawnees have it, "Wea-tha-kagh-qua sepe," i. e., bottle river. John White, in the "American Pioneer," says: "About six or seven miles northwest of Lancaster there is a fall in the Hockhocking, of about twenty feet ; above the fall for a short distance, the creek is very narrow and straight, forming a neck, while at the falls it suddenly widens on each side and swells into the appearance of the body of a bottle. The whole, when seen from above, appears exactly in the shape of a bottle, and from this fact the Indians called the creek Hockhocking."
The entire valley, when occupied by the In- dians, was a wild and rugged area,
"Where nothing dwelt but beasts of prey, Or men as fierce and wild as they."
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But Nature had stored away in the hills and valleys of this region a richness of coal and gas, and oil, and clay, and iron and salt never dreamed of by the first inhabitants. "Hocking coal" is in demand all through the middle west, for it is high grade. It is shipped
ago the salt products gave employment to hundreds of workmen and the product brought many thousands of dollars to the valley.
No region of similar arca in the state has produced so many noted men and women as
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to all the ports of the Great Lakes and the cities of the Northwest. The long coal trains of the Hocking Valley are so common that they form a permanent part of the scenery of the valley.
The clay products of this valley are among the most valuable in the country, and the in- dustry seems (1912) yet in its infancy. Years
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the Valley of the Hockhocking. In fact, this valley was the cradle for noted orators, statesmen, soldiers, mathematicians, jurists, scientists, journalists and ministers. Their name is legion; space forbids the mention of more than a few here-General Thomas Ewing, Sr., Gen. Thomas Ewing, Jr., John Sherman, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman,
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Governor of Ohio William Medill ( 1852-56), William J. Reese, Judge William W. Irvin, Charles R. Sherman, Hocking H. Hunter, Philomon Beecher, John Chaney, Thomas O. Edwards, Charles D. Martin, Philadelphus Van Trump, Capt. Joseph Hunter, Mrs. Jo- seph Hunter (first white woman to settle in the Hocking valley), Ebenezer Zane, Enoch Sites, the noted mathematician, Charles H. Grosvenor, Valentine B. Horton, Samuel Dana Horton, Jeremiah McLain Rusk ("Un- cle Jerry," secretary of agriculture), James W. Dawes, Governor of Nebraska, James Ball Naylor, the novelist, Samuel F. Vinton, Philip Henry Sheridan, John A. Macgahan, John L. Vance, Ann Bailey, John Campbell, Caleb Briggs.
The population of this entire valley today is more than 260,000 people, and the number is constantly growing. This is a wonderful increase since 1800, the year of the organiza- tion of Fairfield county. The German na- tionality predominates in Fairfield county, as it does throughout the valley. The first im- migrants were largely from Pennsylvania. but Virginia and Kentucky contributed many people to the early settlement of the valley. Swiss and Hollanders came in large quanti- ties, but at the present day every country of Europe, parts of Africa and Asia and the Islands of the Sea are represented in this fa- mous valley.
The soil along the course of the Hocking is a black loam, capable of producing the most extensive crops year after year without the use of fertilizers. The richness of this valley attracted the Indian long years before the coming of the white man. Here he roamed unmolested, and here he "wooed his dusky mate." The fauna and flora were most abun- dant, and life for both the white and the red man was made easy and happy, for game was
found on every hand, and the God of nature had clothed the forest like a vineyard.
Into this valley immigrants came in large numbers. They felled the forest and bridged the stream and they made the wilderness blos- som like the rose. Prosperous villages ap- peared at every turn of the road, or bend of the stream, and some of them soon became cities.
Along the banks of this stream, and to the north, betimes, was heard the dreadful war- whoop of the Wyandotts, Shawnees or the Hurons, the shrill whistle of the rifle ball and the roar of the cannon At Fort Wayne, De- fiance and Toledo once stood massive forts where was heard the din of battle and there was seen the death grapple between "Mad An- thony" Wayne and his foes, or the long- drawn combat between General Harrison and the English general Proctor, aided by his de- voted Indian ally, Tecumseh.
The story of these old struggles is ever new and this chapter would be sadly wanting in interest should the recital of them be omitted here.
DUNMORE'S WAR
It is very interesting to know that, as early as 1774 a fort was established in the Hocking valley, and an army of 1,200 men, led by an English earl, marched through the valley, en- gaging in bloody warfare with the Indians. This fort was erected at the mouth of the Hocking river and was called Fort Gower, in honor of Earl Gower, in what is now Troy township, Athens county. This was Lord Dunmore's army. It was sent against the Delawares, Iroquois, Wyandotts and other tribes that had fallen into bitter conflict with the frontier population of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and then carried over into the Hock- ing valley. These conflicts will ever be made
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notable by the fact that one of the bloodiest massacres was that of the family of the cele- brated Chief Logan, the eloquent leader of the Mingos. The quick and terrible vengeance of Logan upon the whites in the valley of the Monongahela, he has described in his justly famed speech, which is given in another part of this chapter.
Lord Dunmore was governor of Virginia, and in August of 1770 he decided to raise a large army and "carry the war into Africa." Three regiments were raised, one to be com- manded by General Arthur Lewis and the other two by Lord Dunmore himself. Gen- eral Lewis marched out with 1, 100 men, and on the 6th of October, 1774, reached Point Pleasant, twenty-eight miles in a direct line from the mouth of the Hocking. Here Lewis received orders from Dunmore to cross the Ohio at once and to join him at the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, against which Dunmore was marching. But before General Lewis could get started, two of his men were fired upon while out hunting. One was killed and the other came running into camp to give the alarm. In a very short time General Lewis was in the midst of one of the most sanguin- ary Indian wars of all frontier history. The Indians, led by the two famous chiefs, Corn- stalk and Logan, maddened by past wrongs, and enthused with the hope of crushing the enemy, fought all day long with the energy of demons. But an attempted flanking move- ment by Lewis caused the Indians to with- draw at the close of day. Their loss was about 233; the whites lost half their officers and 52 men were killed. This was the noted battle of Point Pleasant, fought October 10th, 1774.
Lord Dunmore, in the meanwhile, with 1,200 men, crossed the mountains at Potomac
Gap, stopped at Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, to review his army, and then descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Hocking, where he con- structed Fort Gower, as already related. Leaving a force to guard the supplies at Fort Gower, Lord Dunmore then marched up the Hocking as far as where we now find the flourishing town of Logan. From this point he marched westward to within seven miles of Circleville, where, near the famous "Logan Elm" a grand parley or "pow-wow" was held, and a treaty executed. It was at this parley, and under the elm noted, that the Mingo chief Logan, made his justly famous speech, the first sentence of which runs: "I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Lo- gan's cabin hungry and he gave him not meat." See Chapter III.
After the treaty was made Lord Dunmore marched back to Fort Gower, where the army was disbanded. Some of these soldiers settled along the Hocking, and in the Mingo bottoms. These soldiers sent for their families and friends, attracted by the fertility of the soil, and thus formed the settlements in Ohio, in 1774 and 1775. They were not permanent, however.
TIIE FAR FAMED LOGAN ELM
We would not be just to our readers of to- day were to omit the description of the great elm beneath whose spreading branches the fa- mous speech of Logan was delivered. This tree stands today on the farm of James Boggs, about six miles south of Circleville, on Congo creek. The tree when in the full vigor of its long life was 20 feet in girth, 79 feet high and the circle of its branches was 120 feet in diameter. The Boggs family settled on this farm as early as 1798 and until recently it was in their possession. The ground on which the
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tree stands is now owned by a Mrs. Wallace -and it would seem that everyone acted upon who lives in Chillicothe. The Boggs family the principle that no longer live there.
The tree is still vigorous; but is badly in need of treatment, if it is to be preserved. There is a movement on foot now to buy a roadway in to the tree. A society known as the Pickaway County Historical Association is pushing the movement. But the first object of the Society is to have a tree surgeon exan- ine the tree, and do what can be done towards preserving it. Already a collection has been taken in the schools of the county looking to this end, the balance then to be used in help- ing to buy the roadway. Miss Clara Little- ton is secretary of this Historical Association. This is one of America's most noted trees, for the speech here delivered, "a brief effusion of mingled pride, courage and sorrow," gave to the Red Man, in the primeval forests of America, an elevated character and power of eloquence hitherto almost unknown. The very place where it was delivered will yet become a Mecca, and thousands will go to see the Elm and stand upon the very spot made memorable by the touching eloquence of this child of the forest.
That the reader may get a more compre- hensive view of these early struggles in Ohio, a brief account of "St. Clair's Defeat," "Mad Anthony Wayne and Fort Defiance," "Bat- tle of Fallen Timber," "Siege of Fort Meigs," "Col. George Croghan and the De- fense of Ft. Stephenson," and "The Old Northwest," is here added. From these sketches the student of history will soon see that the early contests in the Hocking valley, from Fort Gower to the "Logan Elm," were very much like those in other parts of our now beautiful state. It was everywhere a question of power-as it is in the world today
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